Sunshine Of Your Love
by SamanthaMae
Summary: When Tim Shepard is sent to jail, Sylvia feels as if the world has turned against her. Her father has passed away, her mother's turned her back on her, and now that Tim is gone, she has no one to depend on but herself. That is until she meets Dallas...


**Disclaimer:** I don't own it.

Author's Note: This is a **complete** re-write of A Beautiful Disaster. I skimmed across the story not too long ago (for the first time in nearly two years) and, damn, I used to be pretty bad at writing! Instead of continuing it and changing the chapters, I just figured I would be more satisfied with starting it over.

Please, enjoy, any kind of comments and suggestions welcome!

_**Chapter One**_

The smell of rain was all that was left from the thundershower. A tree that had snapped in half was already removed from the road, and it almost seemed like it never happened. However, trying to explain that to Sylvia Reynolds's younger sister wasn't that easy.

Judy was in her bed, shaking and almost in tears. She had always been scared of thunderstorms, without any particular reason. As long as Sylvia could remember, her sister would cry and scream at the sound of the thunder. Not even tornados did as much emotional damage to her – just the thunder.

"It's okay, Jude," Sylvia kept repeating under her breath. "It's okay."

Judy's eyes remained tightly shut.

Sylvia continued to stroke her hair, examining her sister's features. Judy was thin, like her older sister, but they didn't resemble each other too much. For one thing, Judy's eyes were big and brown, just like their mother's. Her nose was perfect – not as flat and pig-like Sylvia's. Her hair was a sandy blond, whereas Sylvia's natural color was much darker, under her layers of bleach, anyway.

The fact that they were only half-sisters shouldn't have been too hard to guess in a stranger's eyes.

A few moments after the storm had passed, Sylvia could hear footsteps on the stairway leading to the hallway. They were too heavy to be their mother's or their younger brother's, and Sylvia rolled her eyes.

She could hear her stepfather asking her brother where their mother was. When he said he didn't know, he moved onto Judy's room.

"Judith, where is your mother?"

"Working," Sylvia replied, trying as hard as she could to not glare at him.

He shook his head. "That woman is going to give herself a heart attack."

_Well, someone has to replace the money you spend on booze!_ she wanted to scream, but bit her lip. Her mother told her to not let Judy or James know that their father was drinking again, and really, they didn't need to know. That would just cause stress…

The last thing her mother needed was more stress.

**xXx**

"So…"

"What?"

"I take it you don't have an answer."

Tim Shepard threw his arms out in confusion. "I don't need no answer. I just told you my answer, and it ain't my fault you don't accept it."

She let out a humorless laugh. "Well, fuck, Tim! All's I'm trying to say is that you never make an effort to spend time with me. I understand you got more important shit goin' on than me, but I should still be a priority in your life!"

"I spend as much time with you as I can, Syl!" he snapped, and she could see the veins in his forehead starting. "Could you just get off my fuckin' back?"

"We've been together since I was twelve years old! I should be important to you." She ran her fingers through her hair in anger. "Ain't I important to you? Don't you wanna see me more than once a week?"

He closed his eyes. "I gotta take care of my siblings, don't you understand that? No one else is botherin' to give a flying fuck about them. I don't want Angela to end up like my Ma, and I don't want Curly to end up like me."

"Well, you're off to a great start," she said bitterly, maybe with more sarcasm than she intended.

Tim glared at her, and for a brief second she regretted saying it.

"I have so much shit on the go, Sylvia," he explained, "I gotta take care of my boys. I gotta take care of my Ma. I gotta—"

"I get it, Tim. You're God."

"How the fuck did this end up bein' a fight?"

"You tell me!" she practically screamed. "I just wanna see you more. I spent my entire day yesterday waiting for you to call me, and you couldn't even do that! I'm the only one making any type of effort here, and it takes two to make a relationship work. Why can't you see that? Why don't you put me ahead of anything?"

Finally, he let out a long sigh and put his hand on her knee. "Look."

She turned her head towards her right and pouted.

"Sylvia, look at me."

"No."

"Babe…"

She had no choice but to turn around when he started tickling her side.

"I care about you. I really do. I didn't mean fer this to turn into an argument, and I didn't mean to snap at you. I just want you to know I can't dedicate my life to you, that ain't fair to my gang or to Angela and Curly. Y'know?"

"Yeah…"

"But that don't mean I don't wanna see you. It just means I'm busy."

Sylvia nodded slowly, traveling her fingers up his arm.

They pulled into the school parking lot, and a kiss later he was gone.

Arranging her notebooks, Sylvia's mind wandered to all the things she hated about Tim. She hated that he'd come home banged up and not telling her what had happened or how he'd break his nose or how he would obtain his black eyes. She hated that he wouldn't even bring her to his house, even though they had been dating for almost six years. She hated that she had to hear about other girls and their obsessions with Tim and not knowing whether or not their gossip was true.

But, _God_, what would she do without him?

She remembered when her father died from his job, and that Tim gathered up the money to rent a motel for a week with her. He stuck by her side and comforted her in ways no one else could. He knew exactly what to do.

She reminisced all of those times that her stepfather would be drinking, and that one time when he hit her, Tim was ready to kill him.

Sylvia could think about a million reasons why she hated Tim, but it wasn't enough to end things with him. There wasn't even a way to imagine what things would be like without him.

There was once a time in her life that she thought they would never separate.

**xXx**

"Check it out!" Jillian Ward shouted from her newly bought, blue 1960 Buick. "I got me a goddamn car!"

Sylvia ran down the stairs from her front porch and smiled. "I can't believe it – you get drunk in your house when your folks are outta town, they find the bottles and the house was a mess, so they buy you a fuckin' car?"

Jill nodded. "Yup."

"Well I'll be damned."

Sylvia didn't even _have_ her license.

"So what do you wanna do?" Jill asked as Sylvia allowed herself into the passenger seat. "Now that I have the tuffest car on the North Side."

Jillian Ward was your typical greaser girl – she had the best selection of false eyelashes, her skirt was so tight it barely even covered anything, and her perm was updated at least once a month. She had dark hazel eyes that matched her flaming red hair. She had such a temper that anyone could tell she was a redhead even over the phone.

She had been dating Don Applegate, a boy one year older than them, and who also happened to be a member of Tim's gang. Sylvia knew the relationship wouldn't last…

It had been eight months and Jill already cheated on him with two different boys.

"Me an' Don got in a huge fight today."

And, not to mention, she would never shut up about him.

"What else is new?"

Jill laughed and playfully slapped Sylvia's knee. "Fuck off. He was accusing me of sleeping with David Glover. Can you believe that! So I says, 'Not only is he one of your best friends, but he's my girl friend's ex!' As if! I would never do that to Don _or_ Linda. That would make me the worst friend ever."

The blond could have snorted. She wouldn't put it past her if she _tried_ to sleep with David. Probably would be that Glover had enough sense to not ever touch Jill Ward.

"What's Linda doin'?"

"Grounded," Jill replied, staring at something off the road and nearly driving on the wrong lane. "When my parents found all the beer bottles they called her parents. I guess they ain't happy about it."

"No kiddin'. Didn't even get her a car or anything."

They shared a laugh and pulled into Dick's, a restaurant that was recently re-opened after being out of business for three years.

"Sorry, but I'm gonna die if I don't get a goddamn milkshake or two in me."

The girls made their way to a table and giggled together about two boys that were eyeing them from their booth. One of the boys started whistling and the other exploded with laughter.

"What are you boys lookin' at?" Sylvia asked, pretending not to be flattered.

"Just two fine looking, decent greaser girls like yourselves," the rougher-looking one responded, smiling a crooked smile.

The blond squinted her eyes. "Don't I know you boys from somewhere?"

"Well, we ought to go to the same school," the handsome one said, also wearing a grin from ear-to-ear. "Ain't like we're—"

"Ain't you Sodapop Curtis?" Jill accused, one hand on her hip. "Last time I saw you, you must've been a freshmen or still in junior high."

Sylvia examined Sodapop. He was handsome, sure, be must have been about a year younger than her. Too young for Jill since she was a year ahead of her. Not too young for _Sylvia_, but definitely too much of a pretty boy. She hadn't never met him before but heard his name a few times; when you hear that someone is actually named Sodapop, it's hard to erase it from your memory.

"Oh, you've heard all about me?" Sodapop acquired, his smile growing wider if possible. "Well now you're seein' the real thing."

Jill snorted. "Actually, I dated your older brother."

Sodapop's smile was immediately wiped off his face and his friend couldn't hold back his laughter.

The conversation came to a quick end and the boys left shortly after. The girls were anxiously waiting for their milkshakes and wondering why the hell it was taking so long for their waitress to get them their orders. It wasn't like the place was all that busy!

"I hate this girl," Jill was complaining. "There are three other people in here, and all we want are two drinks. I'm gonna make her shift hell now."

"How you gonna do that?"

"It ain't hard to piss off a waitress. The only reason people become waitresses is because their husband left them or they never got married in the first place."

Sylvia thought of her mother, working twelve hour days five days a week as a waitress, but decided not to say anything. Jill could be so damn critical that there wasn't even a point in mentioning it. Jill thought she was better than anyone else in the world, and that's just the way she was.

"Here you are, ladies." The waitress, looking no younger than Sylvia, set two strawberry milkshakes on the table.

Jill gave her a wicked smile, and the blond rolled her eyes.

"Hey, there's those two boys that were in here," Sylvia said, nodding to the small group of boys outside the door. "There's someone else with 'em now."

"That blond kid?"

"Yeah. I ain't ever seen him in school before."

Jill shook her head. "He don't go to school. That boy ain't nothing but a dirty criminal. I'm surprised you never met him before – I thought he was right good friends with Shepard."

"I dunno. Who is he?"

"Dallas. I can't remember his last name."

"Dallas…don't think I know him."

The redhead played with the straw of her milkshake before purposely knocking it over on the floor. "He got in a fight with Don last week. Don thinks he stole his wallet at a party or something, and I wouldn't put it past the lil' fucker."

Sylvia couldn't help but let out a laugh. " 'Cuz that kid looks real intimidating."

"He's from New York."

"Big woop. I seen Tim break pool sticks off'a people's heads. That boy don't seem like nothing but a little pansy."


End file.
